CAFÉ PHILOSOPHY is participatory public philosophy in Victoria, BC, Canada. These weekly dialogues went on for over 12 years, and more than over 500 sessions.
CAFÉ PHILOSOPHY ended July 15, 2009. Author and moderator, Michael Picard, is taking up a new position teaching philosophy at Douglas College in Vancouver. For more details, and for future updates, see the News box below.
Thanks for the memories. So long, Victoria.
Follow the argument where ever it leads!
"It's just somewhere you know the conversation is going to be interesting. I don't think there's a whole lot answered, but it raises a lot of questions."
~ Kristi MacMillan
A crowd gathers before Cafe Philosophy begins. Photo by Mutsuko Tomita
After over 12 years and more than 520 sessions, Cafe Philosophy came to a unlikely conclusion in July 15, 2009.
"It has been a great ride, but a greater one awaits," says Dr. Michael Picard, founder and default facilitator since the inception of Cafe Philosophy on January 28, 1997. "I was determined to make a go of it, and make philosophy happen at street level, in a cafe, open to one and all. Many said it could not be done, that it defeated the very purpose of philosophy to engage in it with just anyone, as if it had never happened since Socrates. But thanks to a thinking public it thrived, and we were experimenting and innovating till the end."
The cause of the end is his upcoming move to Vancouver in August 09, to take up an offer to teach philosophy at Douglas College. In response to the question he is most often asked, whether he will start another Cafe Philosophy there, he says, "one day, maybe, not right away. I am not done with philosophy in a cafe, or in and with the public and in venues beyond the academy. When it comes, it will be something new, something fresh, based on what was tried and learned these past few years. Wait for it!"
The first book by Cafe Philosophy host, Dr. Michael Picard, has now appeared in a second printing. You can get your copy directly from the author or at Solstice Cafe for $15. To date, some 20,000 COPIES have been sold worldwide. It is co-published by Allen & Unwin in Australia, by Barnes & Noble in the US, and by Continuum Books in the UK and worldwide. The second printing is now in Canada as well, and is carried by Chapters/Indigos. In France it was translated by Marabout as Ceci ce n'est pas un livre! , which is also available in Quebec.
